The present invention relates to recreational vehicles and in particular to ladders for accessing the roofs of motorhomes and travel trailers.
There is a desire to provide as much interior space as possible which translates into maximizing the overall motorhome and travel trailer widths. However, increased width makes the motorhome or travel trailer difficult to navigate in narrow passages, and ultimately is limited by highway regulations which limit motorhome and travel trailer width to, for example, 102 inches. Further, many motorhomes and travel trailers provide for roof storage, and also may include roof mounted air conditioning units and/or roof mounted generators. As a result of these uses of the motorhome and travel trailer roofs, there is frequently a desire to provide a ladder to access the motorhome and travel trailer roof.
While ladders might be attached to the rear of a motorhome or trailer, in many instances owners would prefer to mount the ladders on the sides of their motorhomes or trailers to avoid blocking views from rear windows, or in the case of toy haulers with full width rear doors, it is not feasible to mount the ladder to the rear. Unfortunately, due to the aforementioned substantial width of motorhomes and trailers, adding the additional width of known fixed side mounted ladders often violates FMVSF standards, and may result in damage when a driver fails to allow room for the additional width resulting from a fixed side mounted ladder.
Further, known motorhome or trailer ladders include brackets which attach to the motorhome or trailer roofs. Such roof attachment often compromises the roof resulting in leaks. The resulting entrance of moisture into the motorhome or trailer roof may damage the roof and weaken the ladder mounting points in particular. The weakening of the mounting points may result in failure of the roof structure and in injury to a climber.